End of a chapter... contd.

It's one thing to feel for the university as a whole, to miss the ambience, and the fun times...

It's quite another to say good bye to friends. As we all go our own ways, we have to say good bye, to four years of friendship, four years of growing up to be men after starting out as boys, four years of a many a good times...

Today someone that I call a very good friend leaves for his next chapter: that of IIM Lucknow. A great feat, a great achievement. Jebu, we'll miss you.

Yes, I agree, Jebu is not the first from our section to leave Kolkata, but certainly he is the first really good friend to separate...

We should all be happy: this is one of many success stories in our batch...

Yet, why does it hurt?

Priceless, v2.0

Talking of things, moments, and people priceless, see this post from a friend of mine...

This is one of those posts that you can read again and again, and feel very good every single time...

Priceless: the subject of the post, and to a lesser degree the post itself...

Priceless

My maternal grandma recently took an audacious tourist trip... to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore... She was not keeping the best of health, yet she was bold enough to go with a friend of hers... Of course it was with a tourism operator, SOTC, yet she was "alone", with none from her own family accompanying her...

Well, she is back, and it's a treat to simply watch the expressions on her face as she describes her tour!! The hotels, the food, the tours, the air travel, the scenery... it's all there, right there on her face...

Remember the Mastercard ad??

Well, it's true... To watch your elders become children again: Priceless!!

A farcical test...

I had my driving test today, at the Motor Vehicles Department...

I had hoped that the test would be a genuine affair, with perhaps an inspector asking us to do a bit of driving on our own... Well, I know this is India, and moreover this is West Bengal, yet I had hoped for a semblance of sincerity... after all, this is the driving test; this is about road safety!!!

Guess what... I was wrong... This was the most farcical test that I have ever been witness to. I was actually behind the steering wheel (one of the few who were actually behind the wheel; many never even got into the car), but even then, an instructor from my training school was with me, and to ensure there was no chance of a mess-up, even the remotest one, he practically did all the driving!! He overrided the clutch and brake, and asked me to simply keep the accelerator at an appropriate position...

It was disgusting!! It's my test, and can't I even expect to have a decent go at it??

Yes, I agree, mostly the training institutes make sure the candidates are genuine, that they indeed know driving...

But what of the small fraction who get in unwarranted??